Capital 18 Adidas, Sting 17 Gold Snag Bids To USAV Nationals at NLQ

The month of January has been good to Wisconsin clubs with four teams punching a ticket to USAV Nationals with Capital 18 Adidas and Milwaukee Sting 17 Gold most recently earning bids this past weekend at the Northern Lights Qualifier in Minneapolis.

@CapitalVbAll body language speaks volume! These kids are having so much fun! This class of 2020 from Capital has been so fun to cover the past two years. pic.x.com/ovKCHRSYLA

— Chris Fitzgerald (@PrepDigChris) January 31, 2020

For Capital 18 Adidas, the energy on the court was electric from the start on Friday with a really strong opening pool that included Northern Lights 18-2 (MN) and Six Pack 18U (IA).  The squad from the Madison area survived three, three-set matches with the last one against Six Pack being a tightly contested match all throughout. Six Pack is out of Cedar Falls, IA and has a group who qualified for USAV 17 Open in 2019 that includes 6'5 middle Alayna Yates, a Dayton commit as well as Jada Wills, an outside hitter committed to Drake.  In this particular match, body language spoke volumes. The celebration, the energy, and overall enthusiasm from Capital was electric prevailing them to not only a victory on to close out Friday, but to continue the momentum throughout the weekend.

@CapitalVbAll with the 🏡🏡🏡 to win in three over @6packvbc pic.x.com/K2dPWk2nrz

— Chris Fitzgerald (@PrepDigChris) January 31, 2020

Come Sunday, with a bye into the semifinals, Capital would have to win one of their two matches on the day to earn a bid to Reno.  After a three-set loss to in-state rival Milwaukee Sting 18 Black, they would go on to defeat PVA Elite out of the Kansas City area for third place, punching their ticket.

Milwaukee Sting 17 Gold came into the weekend with big goals of snagging an early bid, but a field of some of the top teams in the country would make that quite the feat with the likes of Northern Lights (MN), Arizona Storm, OT (FL), Houston Juniors, A5 (Atlanta), and Metro (DC Area).  Being able to win big points in crucial situations even from the opening match with a tightly contested three-set battle against Iowa Power Plex out of Des Moines all the way until the end against A5 in the third-place match-winning 25-21, 25-21 - A5-Mizuno 17 Jing was the top seed coming into the field and Sting 17 Gold already has two wins over this squad after defeating them at the Central Zone Invite in Indianapolis the previous weekend.

Bullis to Berglin connection is 🔥 🔥🔥 for @stingvb1988 17 Gold pic.x.com/rTjMndkOwp

— Chris Fitzgerald (@PrepDigChris) January 31, 2020

Balance and strong defense prevailed throughout for Sting 17 Gold with the setting combo of Emme Bullis and Janelle Stuempfig.  Pin hitters Mariah Grunze, Jordan Berglin, and Katie Winkler provided a consistent scoring threat, really stretching out the defense.  Winkler has always been a powerful, left-handed right side, but has now added roll shots and power tips making her even more of a scoring threat.  Defensive specialists Anna Holland and Sam Naber are some of the best in the game at their level and were constantly providing a solid first contact for their setters to run the show in system.

Full album of Wisconsin clubs from @NLqualifier 17/18s Qualifier this weekend! https://t.co/NoCSoV7SSJ pic.x.com/v6kPnJhtAU

— Chris Fitzgerald (@PrepDigChris) February 2, 2020